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Thalassa
Please Put Suggestions Here: Thalassa Thalassa is a moon that orbits Theia, a Saturn sized water-Jovian that consists of methane and water vapor. Discovered by an expedition at the mid-twenty first century, it was one of the most amazing things that had happened to the human race for decades. To the cultures of Earth, Thalassa is mysterious, primal and terrifying. Despite this, a glimpse of the planet from space will show the planet is brimming with life due to the abundance of flora and clear atmosphere. Depending on the position of Thalassa, three or four moons could be visible from its surface. Together with the bioluminescent plants and the number of moons visible, the night is a spectacle, and truly dark nights are uncommon. Chronology Formation The moon is first formed from excess material from Polyphemus’ genesis. The early atmosphere consists of mostly hydrogen and helium. It was a rogue planet for the first fifty million years of its existence; however it collided with another rogue planet, which vaporised large amounts of silicate. Rings of excess material began to form into its only satellite dubbed Pontus. This impact caused a gravitational slingshot event pulling Thalassa away from the inner system to the outer system, being captured by the immense gravitational pull of Theia, a water jovian that consists mostly of methane and water vapour. Over the next billion years; it began to cool. The first atmosphere consists of mostly hydrogen and helium. However the atmosphere was later stripped away by intense blasts of solar winds. Soon, the internal materials (mostly molten iron) continuously rotating and churning up produced a dynamo, which formed the magnetosphere. Outgassing produced a second atmosphere; which consists of more familiar gasses such as water vapour, nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide. At the late bombardment, a large comet crashed into Thalassa (four times the size of Enceladus), producing large amounts of liquid water which dominated the surface. A billion years after its formation, the moon began to experience plate tectonics, a system in which on a geological time-scale. The crust, which has by this time cooled and solidified, continues to move across the planet's surface driven by internal factors, such as the mantle's continuous loss of heat. Biology Life forms inside the moon are very similar to those of earths', they are carbon based and use similar proteins for genetic coding. They also utilize hemoglobin as the main oxygen transporter. Fauna however are slightly different, although they also have need to ingest other organisms or their products to produce energy (Heterotrophs), they contain a more complex nervous system. The extended portions of the nervous system form "neural whips", structures sheathed inside ear like extremities, these neural whips can let different species communicate with others with signals emitted from brains. All fauna go through some kind of sexual reproduction. They have few specialised reproductive cells; such as the motile spermatozoa and the non-motile ova. When these cells merge, they form zygotes which continue to develop into individuals. A zygote eventually develop into a blastula. Then, It invaginates to form a gastrula with a digestive chamber, and two separate germ layers, an external ectoderm and an internal endoderm. In most cases, a mesoderm also develops between them. These germ layers then differentiate to form tissues and organs. Most photosynthetic organisms are mainly green due to chlorophyll, though there are a few exceptions. The plants more related to animals are pink, they also have complex hearts which pump sugars across the body. During their development they manage to develop a complex nervous system. The presence of a nervous system makes these plants harder to classify, as they evolved convergently in many other plant clades. From what we know, plants are classified either in Virenfoliae (Green Leaves) or ''Zooplantae ''(Animal Plants). The indigenous trees, which is defined in a broader definition (a photosynthetic organism that consists of a distinct trunk, leaves, and roots) are greatly similar to those of our planet's other than colour. Though the proportions are larger and some shapes are stranger and exotic due to lower gravity. Basically, the surface of the planet would look similar to earth though in night, virtually all plants glow due to bioluminescent symbiotic bacteria in various shades of blue, purple, and red. All plants also can link roots together, and can communicate by signals from the brain, all plants have a complex brain that functions well, they even achieved sentience. Composition Atmospheric Composition Thalassa's is considerably thicker and more compact than earth's. The atmosphere consists of; nitrogen (60.3%), oxygen (28.7%), carbon dioxide (6.5%), argon (1.5%), noble gasses (1.9%) and trace other gasses (2.1%). The total amount of water vapour varies between seasons due to the ever changing climate (due to Theias' exaggerated orbit). The lethal levels of carbon dioxide render humans unconscious in forty seconds, and dead in eight minutes. The thicker atmosphere causes airborne animals to fly with relative ease thus a human could fall from three stories without any major fractures. Plants are a subject to greater wind force, as the greater air density means that the moving air carries more kinetic energy, and flora must have greater strength or flexibility to resist it. The increased mass of the denser air means that it requires more force for an object to accelerate whilst moving through Thalassa's atmosphere -- Smaller fauna experience this when they try to run, it feels like there is a wind blowing against them, even though the air is still. Chemical Composition The composition of Thalassa is as follows; iron (33.5%), oxygen (30.2%) silicon (16.7%), magnesium (14.1%), nickel (2.0%) and sulphur (1.7%), with the remaining 1.8% being taken up with trace amounts of other elements. The core however, is mostly comprised of molten iron (91.7%). This large amount of iron in the core is the result of mass segregation, where heavier elements, move towards the centre of gravity. Due to the abundance of heavy elements within the core it creates a dynamo which forms the magnetosphere. Terrain The moon also has a lithosphere which operates similarly to that of earths, however the tectonic plates are much more active then earths', thus volcanic islands (and volcanoes) are far more common. The lithosphere is further divided into tectonic plates, which are far more common (though much smaller) than earth's. The landmasses consist of four continents and three large archipelagos, which are remnants of former continents engulfed by the rising sea level. Due to Thalassa's geography (mentioned above) there are only two oceans, linked together by a rather large strait. The smallest of the two, Panymphe is located at low latitudes. Panymphe is notably shallow and frequently heated by underwater sea volcanoes, forming immense mists that contain high levels of moisture, supplementing the wetlands below it. Its larger counterpart, Pandora is the opposite. It straddles the northern hemisphere, and cold currents rising from the depths of the ocean makes it frigid. Category:Thalassa Category:Astrobiology Category:Projects